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Gipsy
01-25-2011, 17:57
Does anyone do any geocaching on the trail? If so, tell us some stories!


:confused:If by chance you DON'T know what geocaching is... I highly recommend you do a little checking in to it! Its a game that combines hiking/scavenger "treasure" hunting/and a little high-tech (GPS).

Some describe it as... "Using multi-billion dollar government satellites to find tupperware hidden in the woods".:banana

Delta-Dawn
01-25-2011, 18:20
Glad you started this thread, this was something I was going to ask myself. We love to geocache and while it might not be feasible to do it the whole trail, I know my daughter would enjoy the occasional cache along the way. :)

Old Hillwalker
01-25-2011, 18:21
Geocaching within the boundaries of the AT Corridor which is under the ownership of the National Park Service is verboten, or at least discouraged. That would be pretty much most of the AT. All of the AT is a National Scenic Trail within the US National Park System.

Pioneer Spirit
01-25-2011, 18:26
Or Geocaching's older cousin Letterboxing.
Atlasquest.com

Sierra Echo
01-25-2011, 18:28
My friend Ian just got into this. Ian called me a "muggle" because I dont geocache. Ian is a dork!

Delta-Dawn
01-25-2011, 18:48
Geocaching within the boundaries of the AT Corridor which is under the ownership of the National Park Service is verboten, or at least discouraged. That would be pretty much most of the AT. All of the AT is a National Scenic Trail within the US National Park System.

That's what I figured, but I know some parks allow it, as long as they were pre-approved cache's. Georgia State Parks allow it, and some National Parks allow it while others do not, ie. yes at Duke's Creek but no at Chattahoochee River parks. Army Corp. of Engineer land is usually open for caches as well, but that depends on the area.

Gipsy
01-25-2011, 19:58
Even though there are areas without caches, the parks that allow it will bring added entertainment and adventure to my hikes.

couscous
01-25-2011, 20:13
You could load the location of all the shelters into your GPS and treat them as geocaches .. they each have an interesting trail register to open and explore.

Gipsy
01-25-2011, 20:18
Thanks "Cous", I had actually considered that!

ki0eh
01-25-2011, 20:19
The PA sections of Great Eastern Trail are more friendly to geocaching - see the link (left side) listing geocaches along the trail, on the PA Mid State Trail homepage http://www.hike-mst.org/

Gipsy
01-25-2011, 20:34
SWEET!

Thanks a TON!

garlic08
01-25-2011, 21:12
I found several by accident and without a GPS on my Pacific Northwest Trail hike a couple years ago. There were a couple in fire lookout towers, just sitting in the open on cabinets. These were in really remote areas, free from muggles apparently. I found another on the same trip in a summit cairn.

On the AZT near Tucson, I saw a weird metal utility cover in the middle of the trail, far from any utilities. I lifted it up and found a geocache, placed by our friend Tugies from Tucson.

I see a lot of them with my wife GreasePot, a top cacher as well as a thru hiker. My wife and I also placed a cache dedicated to the Arizona Trail near Tucson. I got some T shirts and bandannas donated by the AZTA for cache goodies.

On the CDT, we were SOBO through the Gila Wilderness approaching the Gila River, still swollen with spring runoff. We found a remote cache, the first find since the previous summer, and picked up a coveted Jeep "travel bug" (finding it meant you were eligible to win a Jeep in a yearly drawing). As we walked south, we saw a couple of guys hiking north. We were glad to know the river was fordable. A few minutes later we heard a cry of dismay--they had come in just to get the Jeep. They'd been waiting all year, made multiple attempts at fording the river through the spring, and missed it by a few minutes!

Gipsy
01-25-2011, 21:21
Great story garlic!

Delta-Dawn
01-25-2011, 21:46
That is a great story Garlic! I can imagine their dismay, sometimes those travel bugs are a hot ticket. Speaking of tickets, my all time favorite cache was a local one. The cacher listed it and said FTF got a surprise; tickets for Chastain Park concert-Jack Johnson! Talk about a race for people to get that cache first. Caching is great!:)

mweinstone
01-25-2011, 22:14
i walk by a rock and remember it sometimes. and year after year i pass that rock and think,..why do i remember this rock? or tree, or bend? i been on this trail a while. certian places ,like my home stomping grounds, i know well. in all the scilent miles of contenplative solice, my mind has marked places and things with great detail. if a thing is out of place or a bend in the trail a relo,...i notice.
so years ago, when this geo game started, i started finding weird crossed logs and strange rocks tilted up on stumps and such.they were like indian signposts i imagined to myself before i knew what geocaches were.but i new they were recent and i knew they marked something hidden. so i started breaking into them and finding little tupperware containers with buissness size cards on them with cordinates written on them.there was allways two cards and two sets of cordinates. i figured it was a game for nerds. i never knew it involved prizes or online questions or all the other parts. i still never met a geocasher. ever even once. i know not the rules. i allways put back the peices of paper into their little fartsacs and put the logs or rocks or whatever back the way it was. i now know its a game you guys play. i dont know how much fun that is compared to searching for a spring robin or a peice of the winters first ice to stomp,...but i am sure you may play in PA without worry.

Gipsy
01-25-2011, 22:37
There are 1,279,026 active caches and an estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide.

I'm sure you know a couple of cachers, you probably just don't know that they ARE cachers. For some reason it seems to be kind of a secretive game.

perrito
01-25-2011, 22:52
While you can't hide geocaches on the AT (I believe it's within a distance of 250') you can place an "offset" (mystery "?") cache. You might try going to a shelter and finding some graffiti or something (a number) carved into the wood. This way you give your cache hunters an experience on the AT and a geocache to find. As most shelters are not close to roads, this may be a bit of a hike :rolleyes:, the same can be done in the vicinity of the AT parking areas or using a sign somewhere along the AT. I'm sure you can think of other ideas. Anywho, an offset cache may be your best bet.

"Team Perrito Blanco" http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-fc/dog.gif

mweinstone
01-25-2011, 22:54
how many does that come out to per square mile?

Pioneer Spirit
01-25-2011, 22:58
My first visit to the AT was a letterboxing event I planned between Clingman's dome and Newfound gap.

Letterboxes consist of log books and hand carved stamps and involve compass reading rather than the high-tech of a GPS. It started in Dartmoor region of England over 150 years ago. Atlasquest.com

Shiraz-mataz
01-26-2011, 08:15
I've been geocaching for years! As for caches along the AT they are few and far between these days with most being something called an "earth cache" where you are supposed to find a unique geologic feature and discover a piece of information about it. This gets away from having another "box of junk in the woods" which is a major complaint about traditional caches. Still, as of a couple years ago, there were quite a few traditional caches along the Maryland portion of the AT and I found most of those before they were archived. A related activity is benchmark hunting and I am always running across those on the trail, with or without a GPSr in hand!

One of the coolest caches I've found was a few months ago on an island in the Potomac River, not too far from the AT actually. I'd been canoeing down the river for miles, portaged around two dams before arriving at the small jumble of concrete blocks that were once a train trestle. Tying off the canoe, I scrambled to the top of the block island where the cache was wedged between a couple of boulders. There are too many to recount but my geo-handle is the same as it is here, "Shiraz-mataz" so if you're a member of geocaching.com you can peruse my adventures and photos.

10-K
01-26-2011, 08:39
I don't know beans about it but it seems like Letterboxes would involve more skill.

When you geocache, do you know the Lat/Long of what you're looking for?

If so, how is plugging that info into your GPS and going right to it any different than, say, using Mapquest or google maps to find out how to get somewhere?

garlic08
01-26-2011, 09:26
I don't know beans about it but it seems like Letterboxes would involve more skill.

When you geocache, do you know the Lat/Long of what you're looking for?

If so, how is plugging that info into your GPS and going right to it any different than, say, using Mapquest or google maps to find out how to get somewhere?

I'm not a geocacher either, maybe because gadgets don't appeal to me and I don't own a GPS. But I'm married to an avid cacher and have seen that there's something that appeals to all levels. Some are very simple, some are designed for children, and some are very challenging and complex and entail a certain amount of adventure.

At the most basic level, you type in the Lat/Long and go right to an obviously hidden ammo can or tupperware container and log your name and maybe trade some trinkets. Kids love that. Some can be found with Google Earth or an automobile satnav system. But it grows in complexity from there.

As mentioned above, there are multi-stage caches out there, where you first find another set of coordinates on a plastic tag, or you have to calculate your next coordinates from something you find in the field, like a date on a tombstone or carved into a shelter or something. Some stages are not obvious, require some real hunting, are very remote, require adventurous travel to get to (boating, climbing), sometimes you need real skill in orienteering and/or math. It's like hiking--it can be a walk in a park or an epic trip cross country over a mountain range in winter. It's all just walking, right?

Lauriep
01-26-2011, 09:50
For anyone interested, ATC's geocaching policy can be found on-line here (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atf/cf/%7BD25B4747-42A3-4302-8D48-EF35C0B0D9F1%7D/Policy%20on%20Geocaching.pdf).

Laurie Potteiger
ATC

fredmugs
01-26-2011, 12:35
Maybe somebody can geocache a bunch of trees and rocks in the Whites that the AMC won't blaze.

Wise Old Owl
01-26-2011, 14:09
There are lots of Geocashe locations along the AT, regardless of the rules. Before I posted this I thought I would check other states, there are three in the vicinity of the Gooch Shelter.

Gipsy
01-26-2011, 15:03
Making a mental note about Gooch Shelter!

LDog
01-27-2011, 23:20
Does anyone do any geocaching on the trail? If so, tell us some stories!

I have been caching for several years now, and am planning a 2012 thru-hike. I'm looking forward to finding the occasional cache.

I found GPX files for the trail, and created pocket queries along those routes. With a search radius of .5 mile, geocaching.com returned 54 caches between Springer and Damascus. That doesn't include micros, multis, or puzzles. Reducing it to a .25 mile radius returned 37 ...

As to some of the comments about National Park policy, "Virtuals" and Earthcaches, neither of which involve "tupperware in the woods," are allowed, and are some of the most interesting to me.

I'm looking at the Garmin Foretrex series as a lightweight alternative to heavier mapping units. Tho I am considering getting an iPhone and leaving my dedicated GPS and camera at home.

Well, probably not my camera ...

I have designed a pathtag for the hike which I will drop in each physical cache I find. *That,* more than most, violates my lightweight ethic.

Hope to cross paths with you!
Willy on Groundspeak

mweinstone
01-27-2011, 23:37
do hippies geostash?

LDog
01-27-2011, 23:42
do hippies geostash?

Speaking as a prototypical aging hippy, heh heh ...

Buzz_Lightfoot
01-28-2011, 11:55
There are 1,279,026 active caches and an estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide.

I'm sure you know a couple of cachers, you probably just don't know that they ARE cachers. For some reason it seems to be kind of a secretive game.


I'm a geocahcer and I need help.

Join GA today! (Geocacher Anon)

BL

Sickmont
01-28-2011, 12:02
I've been geocaching for years! As for caches along the AT they are few and far between these days with most being something called an "earth cache" where you are supposed to find a unique geologic feature and discover a piece of information about it. This gets away from having another "box of junk in the woods" which is a major complaint about traditional caches.


We used to do that when i was in the Civil Air Patrol back in the mid eighties, but without a GPS. It was how we kept ourselves up on our compass course work for the ground search and rescue work we did. I guess you'd call it a sort of letterboxing, but using geological features as targets. I froze my butt off a few times up in the Water Gap at nighttime in february doing that stuff. Fun as heck though.

RockDoc
01-29-2011, 22:42
There are numerous geocaches in the Maryland section, and we went hunting for them in Nov 08 when we hiked from PenMar to HF (3 easy days). I had previously downloaded the locations from the geocaching website. A surprising number are right along the AT, but most people would never notice them.

Many of them were very difficult to find. Out of maybe 6 we looked for we found 2 or 3. They rate caches in terms of difficulty, and we found the easy ones quickly, but had trouble with the "difficult" targets. This is with two of us searching for 1-2 hours, and the GPS saying we were right on the spot. We walked away from several, including one somewhere in the rocks north of Washington's Monument. Although we found the easy one in the rock pile next to Dahlgren Chapel. Many of these are ammo boxes containing knick knacks and trinkets and a small paper register. Not quite buried treasure. In fact, our hiking friend watched us hunt for these for a few days and then proclaimed it "Geotrashing". Well, OK. He's got a point.

skooch
01-30-2011, 16:47
I am a geocacher too but I've decided to respect the LNT ethic on the AT. It is amazing though. Just go online and create an account and you'll be amazed at what is even in your own neighborhood. It's great exercise and awesome for kids.

Graywolf
01-30-2011, 20:47
Hey this could be aThru Hiker game. You know, hide some gear out somewhere, maybe a small stove or gloves or what ever, and who finds it has found treasure..:-?Hmmmmmmm........

LDog
01-30-2011, 22:04
I am a geocacher too but I've decided to respect the LNT ethic on the AT.

You can do that by visiting the virtuals and earthcaches.

TallShark
02-01-2011, 22:01
^ ok question, and don't rip me to pieces guys but is it morally sound to cache a supply of whiskey, preferably of the single malt variety, that only you and a few others know about in hopes that you can alleviate carrying some exorbitant amount of weight just to have some deliciousness in the backcountry? A good scenario is a weekend trip in the backcountry where you carry a growler worth of delicious whisky deep into the woods and hide it, set the coordinates, and locate it for enjoyment the following years. And to make it fair mention it on a site like this and anyone (responsible adult) who inquired about it was given the coordinates. After all the growler is made of glass and scotch is pretty natural. I mean this sounds like the best idea ever, who wouldn’t want to fill up a flask with some excellent 18 year that they located in the mountains. After a long hike you come to a cache just for that occasion. Would it be wrong to bury it, I mean we do make cat holes after all and filling a hole in the ground with scotch is much better than filling it with toilet paper and, well… you know. Just an idea. Questions, comments?

emerald
02-01-2011, 22:53
http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atf/cf/%7BD25B4747-42A3-4302-8D48-EF35C0B0D9F1%7D/Policy%20on%20Geocaching.pdf (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atf/cf/%7BD25B4747-42A3-4302-8D48-EF35C0B0D9F1%7D/Policy%20on%20Geocaching.pdf)

Kimmee
02-04-2011, 05:31
I have been geocaching for many years and there are many along the trail and in trail cities. I own over 200 myself.

There are a great way to break up the monotony and some are very educational.

I have a list of them somewhere Gipsy --- will get them to you